Author: Editorial
Publication: Daily Times
Date: April 23, 2003
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-4-2003_pg3_1
General Pervez Musharraf told an
international conference at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal in Lahore that, despite the
fact that Pakistan was 98 percent Muslim, certain quarters had unleashed
a battle between Islam and "kufr" (non-belief). He said in reality there
was no conflict of the believer and the infidel in the country and those
who fanned it simply sought to restrict the meaning of Islam. He said such
elements monopolised the religion and wanted to block any advance in modern
knowledge. He was no doubt referring to the clerical high tide in the country
represented by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which threatens to sweep
him from power by rejecting the Legal Framework Order (LFO).
It would only be fair to General
Musharraf to recall that he began objecting to the aggressive politics
of the clerics in 2000 when he saw the national strategy on Afghanistan
and India falling apart. He had earlier scared the religious leaders by
announcing his "secular" credentials, putting together "a government of
the NGOs", publicly praising Kemal Ataturk and being photographed with
his pet dogs. The clerics responded by threatening to march on Islamabad
and enforcing their version of "true Islam". He showed patience but hit
back after 9/ 11 by clearing the decks within the army, sidelining the
so-called "Islamist" generals among his corps commanders. The religious
leaders, thinking that "sympathetic" officers within the army might still
react in their favour, tested him further, but were despatched to house
arrest one by one.
But the cruel war in Afghanistan
after 9/11, coupled with his hostility to the mainstream parties, also
upset General Musharraf's expectations of the "engineered" 2002 general
election. The religious parties, united for the first time in the country's
history, won a remarkable number of seats in the assemblies and were able
to form their government in the NWFP. His own "chosen" party, the PML-Q,
managed, with much help from the army, to win only a paper-thin majority
in the National Assembly. The struggle with the clergy was on.
It is hard to say who spawned whom.
The power of the clergy and the paramountcy of the military were established
almost simultaneously when the Pakistani politician decided that the new
republic had to be Islamic and that India had to be taken on as the country's
eternal enemy. Both were opposed to the fundamental spirit of democracy
but the army got its chance of ruling Pakistan first. In fact, when it
was time for General Zia to rule Pakistan, he united the army and the clergy
under the banner of "shariat". The political party he fathered, the PML,
doffed its secular vestments and became semi-ecclesiastical. The PPP was
persecuted for being an ideological "security risk" and the nation was
subjected to massive indoctrination. More clearly, the army spawned the
jihadi militias to fight its deniable wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
The militias in turn empowered the religious parties who then threatened
the army itself when General Musharraf came on the scene. Tragically, however,
after the war in Iraq, the nation seems to be thinking more on the lines
dictated by the clergy than ever before in the past.
The army is now witnessing the whirlwind
it sowed. The battle between Islam and "kufr" in Pakistan is manifest in
many areas. A bad law and order situation and insipient sectarianism are
two aspects of it. The madrasa culture is daily increasing the number of
those who make intolerance a way of life. The minorities are under threat
and there are terrorist actions that an indoctrinated state machinery is
unable to cope with. In Karachi today, two entities created by the army
are at each other's throat. After an unprecedented outbreak of violence
between the students wings of the Jama'at-e-Islami and the MQM, almost
all the colleges and universities of the city have closed down.
Therefore General Musharraf is right
when he bemoans the environment of religious intolerance in Pakistan and
the violence that takes place in it. Indeed, no one can deny that Pakistan
needs to improve its secular and pluralist credentials and climb out of
poverty by shunning aggression of all variety. But General Musharraf must
see it all in perspective.
General Musharraf behaved tentatively
when he had the nation fully behind him. He did not disarm the militias
and he gave up half way after beginning a drive against the Kalashnikov
culture of the religious leaders. He also shrank from the madrasas after
beginning a drive to register and monitor them for sectarianism and illegal
funding. He allowed the loud-mouthed leaders of the defunct jihadi militias
to fulminate in public for too long. They undermined his credibility and
lured the public opinion away from his "reforms". Today, we have the spectacle
of a small PML-N leader bad-mouthing General Musharraf and getting mysteriously
roughed up while the banned jihadi leaders are on the rampage saying unprintable
things about General Musharraf with impunity. He willy-nilly continues
to be a part of the theory in sections of the army that wants to boost
religion in order to postpone democracy and fight wars that no longer suit
the people. Now the army is on the verge of being upstaged. And all General
Musharraf can do is wail about the misplaced battle between Islam and "kufr"
and continue to remain aloof from the liberal and secular elements that
should have been his proper constituency. *
